Vitalik Buterin is a co-creator and inventor of Ethereum, described as a 'decentralized mining network and software development platform rolled into one' that facilitates the creation of new cryptocurrencies and programs that share a single block chain. Photo: Ethereum/YouTube

Vitalik Buterin, the developer and co-founder of crypto 2.0 platform Ethereum and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, has received the award at the WTN’s 2014 summit held at the Time & Life building in New York City and joins now the illustrious circle of recipients nominated by the World Technology Network each year. The event has been organized together with Fortune and Time.

Besides, Buterin has been involved in multiple crypto projects over the years, including KryptoKit and Dark Wallet. Furthermore, this is not the first time the youthful developer has been rewarded for his efforts: in July this year Buterin benefitted a US$100,000 maintenance grant from Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, which allow him to further progress in his start-up projects, including Ethereum.

Multiple prominent industry leaders and companies have received World Technology Awards since the turn of the century, including the likes of Pinterest, Tesla, Skype, Apple, IBM, Amazon and other individuals and organizations that have made their mark in the world of technology.

Vitalik Buterin was the only big name in the digital currency industry to win an award at this year’s WTN event. However, there were several familiar names from the world of finance and the tech industry.

Elon Musk, serial entrepreneur, won two awards: one in the Energy category, as the chairman of SolarCity and co-founder of Tesla, another one in the Space category as the founder of SpaceX.

The World Technology Awards are an annual event with the aim of promoting outstanding innovators in a range of tech industries.

Buterin’s latest triumph seems conspicuous due to his defeating with world-famous Mark Zuckerberg, who has been nominated for the IT software prize as well. Last year Zuckerberg continued his innovation outside the realms of Facebook with Internet.org, a project aimed at connecting the 5 billion people without Internet access to the world economy.

David Mondrus, CEO of Blockchain Factory, has commented on that as following: “The visibility that this award will create will increase the interest in the Ethereum project specifically and in Bitcoin in general. Frankly I can’t think of anyone in this market space (or even other market spaces) who deserves it more.”

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